by A. C. Arthur
Theo didn’t immediately turn at her question. His communicator was buzzing again. He looked down to see a message now. “BREACH!” blinked on and off the screen, white letters against the red background.
“We can talk about this later! Right now we have to figure out what else the vampires have been cooking up all this time,” Theo told her.
“You said whatever I asked you that I could expect your answer was the truth. Tell me why you are here, Theo. Why are you on the Human Realm and not on the Far Realm with the rest of the Drakon?”
There was no rage in her voice, no anger to join the space already full of tension. Just the lingering sound of disappointment and confusion as Theo turned to her slowly. Behind him the stench of burning vampires permeated the air. There was shouting through the communicator, but Theo kept his eyes trained on Shola. A cool wind coming through the broken window ruffled the material of her clothes, sending her scent like a spiral through the air. He inhaled deeply, fighting the pain spreading slowly through his chest.
“I told you who and what I was, Shola. I didn’t lie to you.”
She was shaking her head. “Did you tell me everything, the way you demanded I tell you? Did Hoan kill your mother? Are the Drakon working for Hoan?”
Theo didn’t know what to say. While he hadn’t lied to Shola, he certainly hadn’t shared everything about his past with her. And even though some of the things Hikeen said were true, they all weren’t, and the fact that the bastard vampire made her think differently sent his beast into a rage.
“Let’s go back to the Office,” he said through clenched teeth. “We can talk about it there. Whatever you chose to believe at this moment, you know that I would never hurt you.”
He stepped closer and reached out to touch her.
She didn’t back away from his approach, but from the guarded look in her eyes, he knew that touching her wasn’t what she wanted, so he let his arms fall to his side.
“We have to go now, Shola. I’ll answer every question you ask, just not right now. I’ll get someone to take you back to the Office while I deal with this. But we need to move!” His words were more urgent and forceful than he intended, but there were so many emotions warring for his attention right now, he wasn’t sure what to do or say. All he knew for certain was that the vampires were going to pay for the mayhem they’d caused. But first, he needed to make sure she was safe.
Shola looked around the room as if for the first time realizing they weren’t alone. She nodded her agreement. “You’re right. Now is not the time. I need to get some fresh air.”
She moved around the desk and he didn’t try to stop her.
His communicator was buzzing on his arm, and his heart was breaking as he watched Shola moving slowly to the door. For the first time in Theo’s life, he wasn’t sure of his next step, and he cared far more about what this woman thought of him than he’d ever cared about anything else.
“Theo!” Bleu yelled from the other side of the room, snatching his attention momentarily. “Isla says the security cameras are going crazy but every floor that’s accessible has been checked and there’s nothing on them.”
Shola had just walked out the door when Theo snapped into action. He lifted his arm to speak into his communicator. “Get downstairs and make sure Shola gets back to the Office safely,” he directed Reece.
“On it!” Reece replied.
Theo glanced back at Bleu who’d moved over to Theo’s desk and pulled up the security screen. He closed the space between them and focused his attention on the screen, now alight with red, as if something invisible were moving through the building.
“Spread out and do a manual check,” he ordered and used his communicator to type a message to Reece telling him to contact him the moment he and Shola made it back to the Office.
This wasn’t how Theo had figured the meeting would turn out.
Chapter Twenty-One
“I told you I would make it up to you, my lord,” Monife Seyi, general of the Odò Guard, whispered in Warrick’s ear an hour later.
She leaned over him as he sat in the chair positioned in the basement of his townhouse. Across the room, lying on the floor with her legs and hands bound, gag stuffed into her mouth, was Shola N’Gara, the wannabe warrior who planned to interrupt the rightful ruler from taking his throne.
Warrick propped his ankle on his knee and glared at the still form lying on the floor. She was going to be his wife. But that arrogant dragon had thought he could take her away from him. He stroked his goatee and smiled. His plan was to marry her, travel back to her village and change the rules there. Before he could command all vampires, he needed a colony that were loyal to only him. In addition to the legendary vampires he planned to raise from their graves beneath the small town using Shola’s power combined with his own, he would personally change every citizen of the River Tribe and then he would take the strongest with him to conquer the lords in every territory until they all answered to him. It was an ambitious job, but he could handle it. He was born to rule.
And Hoan had known that. It’s why the demonic had sought him out when he’d been ready to make his play for the convergence. After Warrick had told Hoan of his plan, the demonic had thought it a perfect fit. While Warrick built his vampire army, Hoan would merge the realms and rule them all as one. Any pushback that might occur would be solely Warrick’s responsibility to handle. But Warrick didn’t plan to work for Hoan forever. Eventually his army would grow stronger, and the next time an opportunity for a convergence came around, Warrick would be the one taking complete control.
Reciting the full plan in his mind had his chest thumping with excitement.
“She smells.” He frowned after a deep inhale. “Like the dragons.”
“It will wear off. It is a true scent that only stays with the one it belongs to,” Monife said.
Warrick shrugged. She would know about such things since she was a Drakon too. It’d been a terrific stroke of luck how they met a year ago—before he’d even met his bride-to-be—while he was taking a trip to Mobo. She was away from her village, shopping in a nearby city, and they’d instantly hit it off. What that meant in Warrick’s world was that she’d been immediately comfortable with him, not showing any fear or repulsion. He got the latter sometimes when dealing with other preternatural beings. Why the vampire always received such a bad reputation, he had no clue. There were so many worse beings to be approached by, some breeds of shape-shifters could be disgusting; wolves and foxes came immediately to mind. And then there were the witches with their cagey spells or the fae; damn but he hated the fae.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep her tied up until the ceremony. And what did you do to her? Not drugs, I hope. I want her to remain pure.”
Monife chuckled. “Please. Shola N’Gara hasn’t been pure for a very long time, and if she’s been staying in some secret place with Theo Masters, she may be more tainted than ever. Which is why we’ll keep her resting until we’re ready for her.”
“Resting?”
“Don’t worry, my lord. I have this under control.”
She was still standing behind him and Warrick reached around, pulling her until she fell into his lap. Her ass was so plump and landed directly over his crotch. Arousal began quickly as he stared into her almond-toned eyes.
“I’m still angry that you stood me up. A human died because of your action.” Even annoyed, he was still inexplicably drawn to this one and ran his fingers over the intricately designed cornrows that stretched down her back.
She scooted over to him, receiving what Warrick thought was her desired reaction when his hard length rubbed along the soft cheeks of her ass, barely covered by brown leggings she wore.
“I told you I had a good reason.”
He nodded. “Yes, you did. What was that reason? I’ll be the one to say if it was good or not.”
&nb
sp; Instead of telling him, Monife reached down into the fitted red vest she wore and pulled out a purple satchel. The satchel had gold cords holding it closed and a gold symbol on its front—a symbol Warrick had seen before, around Shola’s neck.
“A bag?” he asked.
She shook the bag and something rattled inside. Warrick still didn’t understand.
Monife took his hand and turned it palm up. She opened the bag and poured nine rocks into his palm.
Warrick stared down at the shiny stones. “You want me to believe that rocks were the reason you stood me up? If so, I gotta tell you—”
She covered his mouth with a hot-as-hell kiss and when she finally pulled away—while he was panting for more—she whispered, “These are the blessed river rocks Shola needed to kill you. So yeah, you can start figuring out how to thank me now.”
* * *
Theo knew something was wrong the moment he jumped out of the truck and ran up the front stairs to the Office.
Things had become totally chaotic at the Tower after Hikeen had pulled his vanishing act. Not only did they have three dead vampires that needed to be disposed of, but their entire security system had started going haywire.
“Heat sensors were flashing on every floor, at every exit door,” Ziva told him when he’d left his office to go upstairs to the suite filled with wall-to-wall monitoring systems.
Isla ran around the room touching screens and cursing as whatever she was trying to do was not working.
“How could there be that many people in the building at one time? It’s after ten in the evening.” Even as he’d asked the question, Theo considered what might really be going on.
“That’s just it, we knew immediately that they couldn’t be people because the heat signatures were exactly the same. No two people, human or preternatural, should have the exact same body temperature at the exact same moment. And they were moving too fast, almost as if they were flying,” Ziva said. “We couldn’t figure it out, but we didn’t want to immediately interrupt the meeting.”
“Then the heat sensors all stopped at once, and every screen in this room went red.” Isla dragged her fingers through her straight black hair until long strands were sticking up in places they shouldn’t.
“What happened?” he asked her.
She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “We were hacked.”
“How the hell did this multi-million-dollar system that you personally designed get hacked?”
“Don’t yell at her,” Ziva said. “It’s not her fault. No matter how good something is, it’s inevitable that something better will come along. Whoever this was did something better.”
Theo wasn’t in the mood to take it that lightly. “Why tonight? Are there any of our client files missing?”
“No,” Isla replied. She moved to another screen, punched a few lighted buttons, and then dragged her hand over the screen as if she were wiping everything away. Every screen in the room turned black.
“Nothing was stolen or tampered with. Once it was over, the system returned to completely normal as if nothing at all had happened.” Isla folded her arms over her chest and huffed. “It was a distraction. A very clever diversion to keep us from seeing something else.”
“Seeing what?” Theo asked.
“Maybe Hikeen didn’t want you to see his exit. We were recording the meeting, and he dropped some pretty big bombs.” Ziva clapped her mouth shut when Theo turned his gaze on her. “I mean, nothing surprising to us, but definitely some revealing things to Shola.”
“He doesn’t give a damn about Shola,” Theo said, but he wasn’t totally sure. Everything Hikeen had revealed had come totally out of the air. Never in a million years would Theo have expected the vampire to know all that stuff, let alone let it spill out in a formal meeting, especially since...they were talking about what to do with a mutual enemy. Unless Warrick wasn’t Hikeen’s enemy at all.
“I’m going back to the Office. Do a second sweep to make sure nothing has been touched, and then I want this building locked down tight. And you, Isla, come back to the Office with Ziva. No questions and no complaints,” he said in a louder, sterner tone than he’d ever used with either of the women.
But something had changed tonight, something that Theo hated to admit but could no longer deny. Their secret was definitely out. By this time tomorrow, every preternatural in Burgess, and most likely a good portion of the Human Realm, would know who he and every member of his team were. They would know that Theo Masters, only son of Torrance the Drakon emperor, was in Burgess with a team of dragons.
He cloaked his truck and drove like the wind to get back to the Office, to find Shola and explain everything to her. But the minute he turned onto the road leading to the mountain, he felt it, a deep cold emptiness that spread the closer he came to the house.
Now he was walking through the door, he knew. His chest tightened, and he shivered. Theo was a Drakon; their normal body temperature ranged between hot and hellaciously hot. Drakon did not shiver. They didn’t get cold, chill, or anything of the kind. Yet, as he stood in this lobby, he felt like everything was freezing, from his toes up to the top of his head.
Reece appeared first, with Magnum, Bleu hot on his heels. The way they filed into the reception area, all looking at him warily with their dragon eyes—Reece’s cocoa-brown eyes were alight with fierce gold specks that would highlight his brown body when he was fully shifted; Magnum’s cognac-brown eyes took on more of the red hue which appeared like molten lava in his dragon’s bronze body; and Bleu’s russet-brown eyes appeared as if they were boiling, wavy tendrils of his beast’s heat moving through his eyes to offset the prestigious silver tone of his body.
His fingers clenched and unclenched at his side while fire swirled in the pit of his stomach. Words wouldn’t come, and he swallowed at the bile bubbling in his throat. The eyes of his beast met those of his team.
“Where is she?” he finally managed to ask.
Reece boldly stepped closer to him, but not too close. The black dragon was not known for its kindness.
“When I arrived at the lobby, I saw her heading for the front door. I called to her, but by then the building alarms were blaring, so she may not have heard me. That’s when I ran toward her. She went through the doors. I went through the doors, and then I continued to go through the doors. It was as if there were some eerie time loop that kept me going there for endless moments until something heavy began to clog my lungs. It rose from my feet and snaked around every part of my body until I was able to erect my skin shield and break through the glass. By the time I stumbled to the sidewalk, there was a white truck speeding down the block. I found this.” Reece recited the story in a clear and concise voice, all while knowing the black dragon could lash out at any moment. He extended his hand to offer Theo the necklace with the silver pendant.
Theo took the necklace from Reece, running his fingers over the silver disc engraved with black stars around the edge, a lightning bolt down its center, and two arrows crisscrossing the bolt. Shola never took this necklace off. He’d seen her rubbing it just before Hikeen came into the office tonight and on other occasions. It gave her some type of encouragement. He inhaled deeply, closing his fist around the pendant. Tonight, it would work for him.
He looked back at Reece. He should have shifted. The moment Reece was out of the time loop, he should have let the brown dragon have its life and took to the sky, swooping down over that white truck until it came to a stop. He could have rescued Shola then.
But Reece hadn’t shifted because of Theo’s rule against using the Drakon power.
“I came out minutes later, and Reece was trying to figure out what to do. I hadn’t seen this in my dreams. We raced down the block and managed to catch up with the truck two blocks away. Reece threw himself at the truck to stop it from moving, but it was covered in some type of shield,” Magnum said.
“It felt like a blocking haze,” Reece added.
Blocking haze was used by the Drakon when subduing a being on the Far Realm. It locked the being in a colorless shell laced with Drakon magick so that it was impenetrable until the time that the initiating Drakon relinquished it.
“As Isla was rebooting the system, she found the hacker’s signature embedded deeply in the code she’d written. It was a high-level demonic, a mist that had infiltrated through the vents and seeped into every aspect of the building—”
Theo interrupted, “Not a mist, smoke. Cloudy smoke. The same smoke that rolled off that metallic sludge.”
He could see it so easily as it had wafted around the bottom half of their truck last night. Shola had said the sludge wrapped around her legs too, trying to pull her out of the truck before taking the form of a hooded man. The hooded man who had entered Torrance’s private chambers more than two hundred years ago, with Theo’s betraying mother at his side. His mother, who had come to him in a swirl of fire the night he decided to leave the Far Realm forever.
“I was able to track her,” Bleu said, his voice quiet, yet laced with a lethal hiss. “They’re on the move.”
Theo gave a nod that caused pain to shoot through his entire body in milliseconds. Bleu didn’t have to tell him where they were going with Shola. He knew Hoan’s endgame. “I’m going to get her,” he said evenly, the deep brogue of his dragon seeping through.
“But you know what that means,” Bleu reminded him. “You left the Far Realm because of your father’s alliance with Hoan. Going back there to kill Hoan will put you in direct betrayal of the Drakon emperor. He will challenge you, and you will win, Theo. You will win because Hoan has been siphoning Torrance’s power for hundreds of years now. The Emperor is no doubt weak and will be easily taken. His death will call for your ascension to the throne.”
Theo heard the words. He felt the sting of each one pelting his body like shards of glass as they broke through the barrier he’d erected around himself so long ago. He never wanted to be emperor, especially not after his mother’s betrayal and his father’s misguided trust.